I'm halfway through my next post on rewriting the Beginner's Guide, but I'm just too tired to go on. Losing three hours coming over to New York doesn't help, either. So, I've turned my attention away from the project for now and thought I'd ask something a bit more participatory of the crowd here...
What are the 5 industry-related websites (excluding the search engines themselves) that you learn the most from - the 5 that you couldn't live without (or at least, couldn't earn as much without)?
I'll share my answer:
- Techmeme
If I visit Techmeme a couple times a day, I can be virtually assured that there will be no "big" conversations in the blogosphere or the tech world that I'm missing out on. That alone is worth its weight in gold. I really can't remember how I survived without it, but I'm pretty sure I had to do a lot more skimming to find the signal. - SearchEngineLand
In search, there's no better source for industry-sepcific news. The columns on advice are occassionally good, too, but I find the majority of the value comes from Greg, Barry & Danny, who won't let any of the big or important stories fall through the cracks. - SEOBook
Aaron's ascerbic take on the engines' motivations and his solid understand of the economics of web properties make his advice the most valuable single source I read. - Cre8asite Forums
When I need help with a topic or a resource where I know plenty of folks smarter than I will rush to the rescue, I turn to Cre8. Kim Krause has built a property that is 100X better than forums 100x its size, thanks to the quality of people and contributions - no small feat. - Reddit
I know, I know, technically it's not in the search or technology industry. However, the stories I find there, particularly some that never make it past page 3 give me a view into what the influencers of the web are enjoying and reading, even if it's outside the insular world of blogs & tech. It's also the best way I've found to have good stories to share at dinner conversations when everyone gets tired of talking about the latest top blog list.
Sites that even I'm shocked didn't make the list include Roundtable, MarketingPilgrim, ResourceShelf, Sphinn and about 3 dozen others. Maybe I'm just not the kind of guy who can only live with 5 sites.
Now it's your turn - which 5 sites would you be unable to live without? Feel free to leave live links to the URLs and don't worry about needing to explain your choices if you don't want to.
p.s. My guess is that 50% or more will list Facebook #1.... <sigh>...
There is no site I couldn't "live without" business wise (personally though, I twitch if Facebook is unaccessible for more than five minutes). For every site I love re: business, more would fill the gap if it disappeared. EX: Threadwatch/Sphinn.
What Rae meant to say was that there are three blogs she absolutely cannot live without:
She would never be able to find another site/blog to replace these brilliant voices. She got confused there for a moment.
Anything written by Lisa - including her funny Facebook comments
Agreed. What would Rae do without us--er, I mean without those awesome blogs...
LOL... my Facebook account was taken offline because Aussie Webmaster was not a real name... I had to reach out and get someone to reactivate it under Frank Watson... it was a little stressful
Hi Rand,
Its been just over 14 months since you last posted on this and none of the top 4 you listed then as essential reading make your current top 5.
Basically
SEW
SE round table
Threadwatch
and Matt Cutts all drop off your must have reading list.
This then makes me wonder how many of your new list will last the next 12 months...bets please?
Thanks for the post
Regarding some of those sites dropping off the "must have" reading list, bear in mind that Threadwatch is now sadly defunct (and the follow-up, threadwatcher.com never fully seemed to take off). Also, Matt Cutts' blog seems to be updated... well, infrequently at best lately.
Other than SEOmoz my regular reads include:
I forgot about Avinash - I don't have him in the SEO section of my feed-reader - I have a separate 'analytics' area...
DAMMIT! WILL YOU PEOPLE PLEASE STOP LISTING GREAT BLOGS I DON'T KNOW ABOUT?
Like I have the time to keep up with the 30 or so feeds I already read every day...
;) Ian
(begins adding yet more links to his huge news page...)
Searchengineland - when I am active online, I use this site more than any other, we all know how impressive it is, and there is no better collection of talented people in our field
SEOmoz blog- I like it, and some of my successes have started from blog posts here and the community.
SEObook - Aaron and his thoughts are a facinating way to keep your eyes on both the inner and the outer fringes of SEO
Bruce Clay blog - Lisa in my opinion is the most talented writer in our field, and I am not just saying that because she is hot and wonderful. The Bruce Clay site also has alot more resources hat most know of, as I explained using a bathtub in Albania
This week in SEO - Steven Bradley who is an active SEOmoz member, has the best weekly SEO collection that I know of. I have read it for over a year, and watched it become the best (sorry Steven, last year you weren't the best, but now you are) the reason it is good is because it isn't just a collection of links, it is a fabulously well organized and topical. When I am offline for awhile, I can read his "this week in SEO" and catch up.
Thanks for the bruce clay blog link, some very interesting reads there.
Thanks Pat. Unfortunately I may have to do an abridged version of the post this week. My graphics card decided it was a good week to stop working.
I'll get a post together for Friday, but it may have to be a little less than usual for a week. Hope you don't mind.
Isn't SEOmoz a given?
That said:
Greatest SEOMoz comment ever.
LOL - even with the misspelling of "there"?
1. Search Engine Land - No explanation needed
2. ClickZ experts - Good industry related opinions, I may not agree with all of them, but still it's good to know what's being said
3. CornwallSEO - Excellent posts all the time
4. Bruce Clay - Great posts filled with Lisa's personality
5. Mashable - Keeps me informed on what's going on Social Networking wise
SEOmoz, SearchEngineLand, Guardian Technology, Marketing Pilgrim & ProNet.
Hey Rand
Thanks for the shoutout for Reddit. Truly a must-visit daily, and not just saying that as a Wired marketing dude. I'd round out my general top 5 with ESPN, Techcrunch, Google reader, and Yahoo mail.
And with great timing! Rand's mention should occur on the day of the return of nsfw.reddit.com of all days (the link is, well, NSFW!)
Rand:
About 2 years ago you referenced the value and quality of cre8asite to a lot of unhappy forum members. A lot of us migrated over there. The quality of commentary remains high. On top of that the leadership (and the membership) is remarkably nice.
I'm not sure about my list of 5 but cre8asite was a great suggestion 2 years ago and remains an invaluable resource.
Thanks,
Dave
1. SearchEngineLand
2. SEOmoz
3. Pandia - https://www.pandia.com/
4. SEOheroes - https://www.seoheroes.com/rss (hah, I cheated, that's actually like 30 feeds :P )
5. My webmail :)
1. seomoz
2. seobook
3. search engine land
4. netvibes
5. Dosh Dosh
1. Search Engine Land
2. SEOmoz
3. Bruce Clay
4. Matt Cutts
5. Search Engine Watch
In addition to the ones you added:
1. Gmail: My best sources and advice come from people I frequently keep in contact with.
2. Digital Point Forums: Great source for a SEO newbie as well as a seasoned professional.
3+. Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, Yahoo Site Explorer and the various server analytics programs I use. I strongly believe the best way to learn SEO is from experimenting and applying new knowledge everyday.
Not SEO Related:
Digg: All internet tubes lead from Digg. Flawed and predictable but still a great read.
TechCrunch: Must Read.
Blog reader bulit into browser: Too many blogs to add here, but all important.
NOT FACEBOOK: I am a facebook purist. I am a college student and I use facebook entirely for communicating with my college friends. I dislike the applications and am starting to resent the over usage of AJAX. It is useful for auto-generating fields but when used only for a wow factor instead of added functionality it gets annoying.
Edited for formatting
Digital Point forums? You're joking, right? The noise to content ratio there is horrific and the amount of wrong information grossly outweighs the good. Then there are those 'speed posters; who have to add their two scentences to every topic. *sigh*
There was a day, long ago, when I enjoyed Digital Point, but it seems that for far too long now the entire website has been on admin-autopilot and the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
I agree with you. Digital Point does have some severe weaknesses. However, I believe it acts as the entry point for many people discovering the SEO world.
In my experience a lot of people follow a similar path while learning about SEO:
They start out as novice Web Devs or Bloggers who want to monitize thier work. Then they turn to Adsense (Lured by stories like Markus Frind) but don't get the results they want. They then look for advice (Note: Digital Point is number one result for "adsense forum" on all three big SE) and find SEO tips and tricks. Eventually the smart ones dive deeper into the subject.
I don't mean to say that all or even most people follow this path. I am simply stating that I have seen this as a popular trend. I think Digital Point serves an important purpose and is good to check up on. If you don't agree, go there and look how many first time posters are asking about SEO and Adsense.
Thanks for allowing me to clarify :-)
Everything you said is true, so I think this is where I dig deep for a friendly yet sarcastic analogy. Hmmm... The shallow end of the pool is the most accessible and always the most crowded and the noisiest; there is lots of fun to be had there and many friends to be made. The deep end of the pool is a quieter solemn place where people tend to undertake serious efforts, like seeing how many laps they can swim underwater without coming up for air. I guess I like to swim in the deep end. ...but hey, I'm just this guy...
I guess you are one of the smart ones :)
Great mini-discussion, I look forward to reading your future posts.
Same here! Next time over a drink, eh? Oh, wait. You're only eight years old minus 1.5 months. Man Rand is hiring them young...https://www.seomoz.org/users/view/49007
:)
well, thx for the list, i prepared a "randfish-top5"-netvibes-tab (plus SEOmoz and Youmoz)
Personally I couldn't live without Netvibes and Digg.
Blogstorm.co.uk is right up there for me... :P
1) SearchEngineLand
2) Sphinn
3) SEOmoz
4) Copyblogger
5) SEO Book
The question focused on two differents areas (sites I learn the most from and sites I couldn't live without). Though they sound like one and the same, they aren't.
I learn more from the relationships I build online than the articles, so with that in mind the websites that help me nurture friendships are:
Sites I've learned the most from (some may have provided very specific information about one area, but that info proved to be invaluable):
Edit: Swapped Domain Tools for Stuntdubl. Even though I use Domain Tools non-stop, I don't learn the most from it. Thinking back to the early days, I used to rely a lot on Stuntdubl.
Without a doubt... Megite
Far more relevant than Techmeme and wider coverage
In particular
https://www.megite.com/toprankblog
Plus I have one built upon Technorati favorites which used to allow me to read what my readers were writing about and for them to get added by automatic reciprocation of favorites.
SEOmoz.org - Not trying to gain brownie points either. I like the tone of the site, the information is helpful, and I can always rely on it being fresh.
Google.com/Analytics - Always on my second monitor
iGoogle.com - I have 5 tabs with 7 or 8 feeds per tab. A quick browse through the non-clicked links lets me know what is going on with SEO, what my top affiliates are feeding, what my competitors are doing, general industry news, and finally feeds from the top newsgroups in our industry to stay on top of brand management issues.
VanessaFoxNude.com - She just cracks me up, not sure why. Plus her site is very informative on a number of web issues. Even when she is 'off-topic' her information is still web related (as opposed to Matt when he gets off topic, it's just plain useless). Again, the tone of the site and content is the draw for me.
MySpace.com - Yep, I said it. It's fun to go on there, do some stalking, do some wacky survey that reveals more personal information than you'd tell your best friend (who isn't even on your friend list on MySpace, lol) and then 'bulletin' it to 50+ people you barely even know. ;-) Horrible interface, ugly design, but I keep going back . . .
For me. Top 5 SEO Related Websites are :
1. SEOmoz
2. Search Engine Land
3. Digital Point
4. SEOChat
5. Search Engine Watch
Top Social Networking sites are :
1. Orkut
2. Facebook
3. Myspace
4. Linkedin
5. Xing
Hey, nice thread:
Netvibes
Facebook
google.com/adsense
Typepad
ria
blogs: a vc, lsvp.wordpress.com, readwriteweb, valleywag
seroundtable
gmail
google analytics
search engine land
sew
Between #1 & 2 I think I'd get almost all of the industry news I'd need.
Top 5 SEO Sites for me:
1. Hitwise.com
2. SEOmoz.org
3. Search Engine Watch
4. Compete.com
5. SEO Book
Wow, not a High Rankings fan amongst the mozzers? :(
My favs are:
1. High Rankings (duh!)
2. Pandora
3. Sphinn
4. Facebook
5. BaseCamp
Hey, I'm a huge HighRankings fan! I even subscribe to the newsletter :)
I am happy to see that SEOBook made it to your list, I have been pushing this to my clients and friends for a fair bit of time.
Thanks for the tip, Rand. Will head to reddit lateron and see what everybody is talking about.
1. drudgereport.com
always go there for news, even though i dont care about the global warming posts they have every other day.
2. nfl.com
love football
3. nba.com
love basketball just not as much lol
4. stocklemon.blogspot.com
im a compulsive gambler and go here for info to bet on, you guessed it, nfl and nba. also go there for stock info sometimes.
5. covers.com
another gambling forum
What NBA team do you root for? :)
1. SEO MOZ
2. LINKEDIN
3. FACEBOOK
4. GOOGLE
5. WEB2WEB
1) Digg2) Orkut 3) Webmail for checking my mail 4) Wikipedia5) ICICIDirect for my share trading
Just my own sites I couldn't live without as they bring home money. Anything else is replaceable.
"What are the 5 industry-related websites that you learn the most from"
1. Hitwise for competitive intelligence. The closest thing to cheating, heck... it IS cheating. Wouldn't you like to know where your competitors get their traffic from? Which keywords drive their traffic? How much they spend on paid search? What their CEO ate for dinner?
2. Omniture SiteCatalyst for customer insight. Our network's web analytics package. Access all metrics known to mankind via a single dashboard. If you were the gamer that liked adjusting sliders and analyzing statistics in Civilization or Master of Orion, you'd love playing with SiteCatalyst.
3. SearchEngineLand and it's pligg Sphinn-off for all the 'hottest' search news (and latest Randbait).
4. SEOmoz - for making search marketing education entertaining
5. Copyblogger - for making copywriting education entertaining
"the 5 that you couldn't earn as much without?"
Sure. We can make money with tactics, but strategic insight is invaluable. In no alphabetical order:
Aaron, Andy, Brian, Frank and John
Big fan of BlueHatSEO & Digerati Marketing. Eli's posts on BlueHatSEO are epic and really delve into what can actually be achieved through some seriously edgy SEO work.
I hope you don't mind, and that this isn't somehow plagiarism, but for a while now I've been meaning to start a similar meme, "name the five blogs you would want to take on a desert island."
I haven't put it out there yet, but seriously, I've been thinking about it for quite some time. I think I haven't started because I totally dont want to have to limit my own to five!
This is what I love most about going to the conferences and reading blogs like these. Just when you thought you were spending enough time cruising and using all the coolest websites and tools, there are always new ones to discover! Love it! Thanks for the added suggestions!
Search Engine Watch - apart from my involvement which being fair and for full disclosure.
Smart Keywords blog - when that guy gets to writing stuff
SEOBook - but since getting married he is not as active - can't wait for the honeymoon to be over (just kidding mate hope it last the rest of your lives).
ThreadWatch.... come on Aaron start it up again
Something Rand does and Rebecca and Jane keep you reading....
1. Roundtable
2. SEOMOz
3. Blog Lines
4. Matt Cutt's Blog
5. Sphinn
1) Seomoz.org
Get the real advice from one source ( seo )
2) Shoemoney.com
Get the gossip and some good reads for the day
3) Google analytics
Without stats ...its like driving bling in th snow down a one way street
4) Email client
Connecting to the world is a must
5) My local isp
make sure my isp bill is paid, wihout that I have nothing of the above
I do have more but you said list 5 :)
Great post BTW !
Sphinn (which leads to about 30 others), SEOmoz, SEObook, Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Land
Mostly I lurk the Sphinn for new upcoming publishers and just to enrich my sources.
Seth Godin's Blog https://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
BBC News and Sport https://www.bbc.co.uk
Presentation Zen https://www.presentationzen.com/
SEO Moz Blog https://www.seomoz.org/blog
Michie's Blog https://michiesblog.blogspot.com/ (sorry abut the shamless self promotion!)
SEOMoz
SearchEngineWatch
Matt Cutt's blog (for the topics that matter ;))
SEOChat
SERoundtable
There are others... and from those I get lead onwards...
Dont know about ones I cant live without, but ones that I do read with great pleasure:
1. Search Engine Watch
2. Search Engine Land
3. Mashable
4. SEOmoz
5. SEO Book
Now not in the top 5 but very close and daily browse throughs are;
Matt Cutts blog
Vanessa Fox's blog
Danny Sullivans blog
O'Reilly Radar
Travolution (travel industry Blog)
Google Health Ad Blog
SEOmoz
Search Engine Land (daily update)
Matt Cutts (just for those times when it's important - even though I know it'll be mentioned everywhere else if I need to know it!).
Marketing Pilgrim
Amusement / fun / general stuff (bundled into one): Vanessa Fox, Shoemoney, DaveN.
1. SEOmoz
2. Search Engine Land
3. Roundtable
4. Search Engine Watch
5. Digitalpoint Forums
Search Engine Land
SEO Moz
Planet Ocean
Aaron Walls
Google Webmaster
David
1. Seomoz
2. Seobook
3. Hamlet Batista (I'm surprised no one else mentioned him. I always enjoy reading his insights).
4. Sphinn
5. Neil Patel's blogs
thanks, best-optimized!
I try to maintain 5 tabs on Firefox
1.Gmail
2.iGoogle to follow about 30 RSS feeds
3.Sphinn
4.My blog admin page
5.Seomoz
Well, SEOmoz ofcourse ;)
then:
2)SearchEngineLand
3)Stuntdubl
4)Seobook
5)All others :)
maybe it was in there but where is the love for
lifehacker ?
I think the title of this post should have been the 5 SEO blogs you can't live without.
1. Googe Apps
2. Lifehacker
3. SEOMoz
4. SEO Book
5. Joost de Valk
I follow only Sphinn & SearchEngineLand SearchCap & Search Month column, it contains links to best posts from other blogs.
What do all these sites have in common? They consistently provide content that has real value to me. High ratio of signal to noise. Enjoyable to read.
1. Seth
2. Aaron
3. Rand... I mean seomoz :)
4. Fred Wilson
5. Brian Clark
but I could do with only 3, if you're asking about sites one can't do without. There's plenty of others but none is THAT important.
I use RSS newsfeeds extensively to keep me on top of what's going on so I don't have 5 websites that I visit regularly. The ones I do visit are Bloglines, Cre8asite Forums and Sphinn. I also use Gmail heavily so that's on the list as well. I do pop into Facebook occasionally too. :)
I also visit Techmeme several times a day. It's my second stop each morning after visiting my local newspaper site. I generally follow Techmeme with Sphinn and a check of WebMasterWorld.
I've found with blog feeds I'm spending a lot less time at forums though. Too much noise to filter at the forums.